Monday, December 20, 2010

Odds and Ends (2)

More photos from the "To be posted" folder

I can say with certainty that I have not been in Elkton (KY) on a Thursday evening in summer for several years. How can I be so sure? Thursday night is Bike Night in Elkton from May through October. If I had passed through the downtown area of Elkton on Bike Night, I would have noticed the motorcycles.

Elkton's Facebook page reports 265 bikes in town on the evening of July 2, 2010, just two days before I photographed the flag and metal biker art on the corner of the town square. The poster was on display in an Elkton convenience store.

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I saw this business card on the bulletin board at the Pennysaver Market in Fairview (KY). Apparently these guys have a market for the materials they salvage. Large beams, weathered siding, wide-plank flooring, doors, vintage light fixtures, old mantels, etc. from old buildings are sometimes used in new construction to add a rustic look.

I would like to visit a building salvage yard, sometime. On the home-decorating TV shows, the designers visit salvage stores and always find a vintage piece with lots of character. Hailey Salvage & Building Material in Nashville sounds like that sort of salvage store.

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I was really shocked when I drove down Jeff Adams Road (in Christian County, KY) and saw this heap of broken boards instead of the little frame house that it used to be. Bro In Law Barn Salvaging could have recycled some weathered silvery-gray wood siding from it. Instead, the little house is bulldozed and ready to burn.

This little house was built like a barn with the boards running up and down. It always looked to me like there was nothing between the inside and outside except a single layer of board. People who grew up in houses like this one tell stories about waking up on winter mornings with snow on their quilts.

The little house is gone, but the day-lilies that grew around it are still there, I promise. They filled the yard long ago, and they've spilled out into the road ditches where they grow for a hundred yards in both directions.

One summer, I dug up a few day-lilies from the ditch and brought them home. They have multiplied and they would like to expand out of their allotted area here, too, but the lawn mower keeps them corralled.

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As the shortest day of the year approaches, these forsythia buds remind me that the cold, dark days of winter will soon pass. This photo was taken in early March; it's now late December. In less than three months, the forsythia will be ready to bloom again!

6 comments:

I think it's always sad to see where a house once stood and is no longer there. You can always tell, there are usually a few trees planted together with enough space between them where the house use to stand.

Do you know anything about the house on Pembroke Rd that is past the Busy Bee Farm if you are headed in the direction of Trenton? The house is on the left side of the road. It looks to be very old to me. I was just wondering. :)

I think you're talking about that largish, white, "plantation-style" house that sits back in the trees at an angle from the road. You can hardly see it in the summer when the trees have leaves. The house is still in use and looks to be well-kept, from what little I can see of it when I pass in the winter. I am sorry but that is as much as I know about it. However, it's safe to guess that it's a century old, probably more. If I had its name, I'd be able to research it. I'll try to remember to inquire when I run into people from Pembroke and Trenton.

In the woods behind the Falls Church, VA house that my parents built in 1958 there were patches of non-native flowers including a mimosa tree. A patch of tulips had spread and graced the area with beautiful flowers in the springtime. We were able to map out the approximate dimensions of a small dwelling that had been occupied perhaps over a century ago. Not far away stood a huge oak tree well over 100 years of age with pieces of barbed wire sticking out near what must have been the middle. We figured it had once served as a fence post. I enjoyed thinking about the possibility that a little family has lived there long before us.

IT IS STILL BEST to be honest and truthful; to make the most of what we have; to be happy with simple pleasure; and to be cheerful and have courage when things go wrong.(Laura Ingalls Wilder, 1867-1957)